Talents
Each talent imparts a unique ability to characters possessing it. Once an Acolyte possesses a talent, it is always in effect. In most cases, the ability confers a bonus to certain tasks, or allows him to perform special actions not available to other characters. Talents differ from skills in that a player usually does not need to use an action or test to utilise the ability. In essence, once a character has a talent, his actions always benefit from that talent, unless noted otherwise. Specific details for the new abilities that a talent grants are described under the respective talent’s entry, and unless otherwise stated in the talent description, a character can only possess and benefit from each talent once. Gaining Talents Talents represent a plethora of special abilities for characters, reflecting their skill at arms, specific relationships and reputations they might have, or any number of other things that make them better than the average inhabitant of the 41st Millennium. Just as he does with skills, a character starts play with a number of talents, depending on his home world, background, and role (see Chapter II: Character Creation), and then acquires more as he improves during play by spending experience points (xp). The amount of experience points required to purchase a talent depends on its tier and which aptitudes a character possesses, as detailed on page 81 in Chapter II: Character Creation. Talent Tiers and Categories Not all talents are created equal, and some are unashamedly better than others. For this reason all talents are divided into three levels, or tiers, rated one to three, with one being the weakest and three being the most powerful. Tiers primarily exist to price talents, as higher tier talents have a greater cost. In addition, higher tier talents are more likely to have prerequisites than lower tier talents. When selecting talents, a character can choose any talent from any tier. However, he should be mindful that some talents have prerequisites, and that a character must meet the prerequisites before he takes the talent. Specialist Talents Several talents are not one talent but many, and require a character to select a specific specialisation when taking the talent. Thus, when selecting the Peer talent, a character would also choose a specific group or organization from those listed within the description, such as Peer (Schola Progenium). Each time a character gains the talent, they are in effect taking a new talent, and must choose a different specialisation, so the next time a character selected Peer he might opt for Peer (Adeptus Mechanicus). In many cases, group listings are representative as opposed to all-inclusive, so even though groups like the Desoleum Sanctionaries are not specifically listed in the Peer specialisations, a character could still choose them with the approval of the GM. Talent Prerequisites Several talents require the Acolyte to possess a prerequisite before their selection. This represents a certain innate ability level required to employ specific talents, or a skill or other talent necessary to access more advanced capabilities. These prerequisites may take the form of skills, talents, aptitudes, characteristic scores, or even special abilities. List of Talents By Tier Specialist Traits Denoted With * Tier 1